The role of the pulvinar in visual attention

枕丘在视觉注意力中的作用

• 批准号: 7032944
• 负责人: KENNETH H BRITTEN
• 金额: $ 14.79万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-04-01 至 2008-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7032944
• 关键词: Macaca mulatta; action potentials; attention; behavioral /social science research tag; brain electrical activity; brain mapping; cues; electrodes; electrostimulus; neural information processing; neural transmission; neuropsychology; pulvinar thalami; temporal lobe /cortex; visual cortex; visual feedback; visual perception; Macaca mulatta; action potentials; attention; behavioral /social science research tag; brain electrical activity; brain mapping; cues; electrodes; electrostimulus; neural information processing; neural transmission; neuropsychology; pulvinar thalami; temporal lobe /cortex; visual cortex; visual feedback; visual perception

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus is one of the most enigmatic structures in the brain. Of thalamic nuclei, it shows the largest increase in size with evolution, keeping pace with the size of primate neocortex. Despite considerable effort, its function remains essentially completely unknown. Two related suggestions dominate current thinking about the pulvinar, and each has some experimental support. Neither, however, has been critically tested, and the present application is intended to provide this critical test of both ideas. The first idea is that the pulvinar controls the spatial location of directed attention. This idea has support - though not conclusive - from lesion studies and physiological recording studies. We plan to directly test this idea by perturbing activity in the pulvinar while recording in extrastriate cortex. We know that directed attention produces local changes in the gain of response of extrastriate neurons; activation of the pulvinar should mimic this change and reversible inactivation of the pulvinar should eliminate it. The other suggestion for the role of the pulvinar concerns the mechanism of such gain changes in sensory cortex. In particular, it has been suggested that recurrent projections between the pulvinar and cortical structures control the flow of information between cortical areas; this regulation might underlie any role in directing spatial attention. We plan to test this idea using multiple electrode recording in extrastriate cortex. Two dorsal extrastriate areas, the middle temporal (MT) and the medial superior temporal (MST) are both connected to the same subdivision of the pulvinar (Plm), and also connected with each other - MT provides a dominant source of feedforward input to MST. We will record from both structures simultaneously while again perturbing the activity in the pulvinar. If the connections with the pulvinar regulate information flow in visual cortex, we predict that such perturbation will modulate the cross-correlation of activity between MT and MST. Success on either aim will dramatically influence our thinking about the function of thalamocortical circuits.

描述（由申请人提供）：丘脑的pulvinar核是大脑中最神秘的结构之一。在丘脑核中，它显示出大小随进化的最大增加，并与灵长类动物新皮层的大小保持同步。尽管付出了巨大的努力，但其功能基本上仍然是完全未知的。两个相关的建议占据了有关脉冲组织的当前思考，并且每个思想都有一些实验支持。但是，都没有经过严格的测试，目前的应用程序旨在为这两个想法提供这一批判性测试。第一个想法是，Pulvinar控制着定向注意力的空间位置。这个想法得到了病变研究和生理记录研究的支持（尽管不是结论性）。我们计划在记录骨外皮质时在脉冲中扰动活动来直接测试这一想法。我们知道，指示的注意会导致局部神经元反应的局部变化。 pulvinar的激活应模仿这种变化，并且脉冲的可逆失活应消除它。关于普尔维纳尔角色作用的另一个建议涉及感觉皮质中这种增益变化的机制。特别是，已经提出，脉冲结构和皮质结构之间的反复投影控制皮质区域之间的信息流。该法规可能是指导空间注意力的任何作用。我们计划使用腹腔外皮质中的多个电极记录来测试这个想法。两个背侧外侧区域，中间（MT）和内侧上颞（MST）都连接到Pulvinar（PLM）的相同细分，并且也相互连接 - MT提供了前进输入的主要来源。我们将同时从两个结构中记录，同时再次扰动Pulvinar中的活动。如果与Pulvinar的连接调节视觉皮层中的信息流，我们预测这种扰动将调节MT和MST之间活性的互相关。这两个目标的成功都会极大地影响我们对丘脑皮层电路功能的思考。